Platform choice

Hi everyone,
I am wondering what drives the choice of a platform over another.
Are some platform more suitable for some type of application?
Do some platform offer specific/special features?
Thanks!

I think it’s a ratio of cost/performance/energy.

For example if you want to build a PDA type device; x86 are definitely out, simply because they draw too much current for a given performance (although Via has some interesting CPU).

Some CPU (PowerPC comes to minds) offers good performance and with some model a lot of integrated devices, ethernet, serial port, etc.

Then add form factor, SBC, ATX, VME, VXI, ComactPCI, PC104, PC104+, custom design and you got plenty of variables to juggle with ;-)

My two favorites are PowerPC and x86, in that order. Someday maybe QNX will run on my Mac.

To be more specific, I’m currently working on a motion controller that uses a 1kHz control loop. It will require 2 analog inputs and 1 output per axis, from 1 to 3 axis. A quadrature counter will also be used. Energy is not an issue since it is not intended to ruin on batteries. A PC104 or 3.5" Biscuit form factor is perfect for the application. EBX is the very upper limit regarding size.
I’m just being curious, that’s a project we already worked on with an x86 and it was ok. Would another platform perform better for this type of application?
Thanks!

Unless you talk about volume (cost reduction) I would stick to x86. Give you a lot more flexiblity in component you can choose.